


A Substantive Love

by Tmae



Category: DragonFable
Genre: ........yeah okay that phrase does not work as well as 'madlad', Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, I guess this is technically a, I love fluff but we all know I thrive in the angst, I never actually managed to finish all the prompts for the event, Modern AU, No It Would Not, One Shot Collection, also I'm borrowing a tag from the original tumblr post for the third one, and then had an absolute galaxy brain moment and wrote fills for BROTPS, bc it's Extremely Accurate, chatfic, references to MechQuest, references to the Reset, shout out to 2017 me who saw a community event about shipping, so this is only fills for four of the ten days, supportive friends, technically semi-chatfic chapter but still, the ABSOLUTE MADLASS, went 'aaaaw I wanna take part but I don't do shipping :(', without those two things, would it really be a fic that I wrote with Cysero in it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-29
Packaged: 2020-07-25 22:48:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20033614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tmae/pseuds/Tmae
Summary: "Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, ‘What! You too? I thought I was the only one.'"– C.S. LewisMoments between a Hero and her friendsOR: back in 2017, tumblrfable had an event called10 Days of Hero Shippingand like anabsolute rebelwho also yearns to participate in events with her peers, I wrote solely platonic fills. because of course I did.





	1. Day 1 - Hero/Hero: Ro & Aegis

**Author's Note:**

> The title for this little collection of event fills comes from another C. S. Lewis quote!  
_"Those who cannot conceive Friendship as a substantive love but only as a disguise or elaboration of Eros betray the fact that they have never had a Friend."_  
Apparently I'm in a C.S. Lewis kind of mood while compiling these together and that just felt like a good source for a name for this.

She feels the chill in the air before she notices any other indication of his arrival. She doesn’t move, doesn’t take any step to acknowledge it, just keeps staring up at the rafters of the ceiling. She sighs and her breath puffs upwards in a small cloud.

She tilts her head to the side and smiles wanly.

“Hey,” she says.

“Hey, yourself,” Aegis answers, feet propped up on her desk and leaning backwards in the rocking chair she’s been using as a desk chair. “Are you done moping yet?”

“I’m not moping,” she says, voice as monotone and empty as her chest feels.

He quirks an eyebrow.

“There is evidence to the contrary,” he says.

She sighs again, watching it puff outwards and fall towards the floor this time, rather than upwards like it did last time.

And, okay, maybe she’s lying on her bed, head pillowed in her arms. And maybe she’s doing that with her feet by the head of it and her head by the foot. And _maybe_ the door is locked and a little bit barricaded with a chair. And maybe she’s been staring at the ceiling, empty-headed, for the past… who knows how long.

But she’s _not_ moping.

…okay so maybe she’s moping a little.

“I messed up,” she says, rolling her head back to look at the ceiling again.

“Yes, you did,” he agrees, voice perfectly mild.

She breathes out, not quite a sigh, but long and heavy all the same, and watches the resulting mist curl in the air before dissipating.

“Would you rather that I lied and told you that you didn’t?” Aegis asks, his tone just as mild as before “That there were no mistakes made and none of it was your fault?”

She huffs out an almost self-deprecating laugh.

“Absolutely not,” she says, closing her eyes and shifting one of her arms to cover them, the crook of her elbow fitting neatly over her nose “I messed up and I know it and no matter what anyone says, I know it,”

Aegis _hmm_s and she hears the wood of the rocking chair creak slightly. She almost cracks a smile at that. Apparently, even he isn’t immune to the urge to rock when you’re in a rocking chair.

“Why are you here?” she asks.

“Why do you expect me to not be?” he replies.

And that’s the crux of it, really, isn’t it?

“Back in the Plane of Elemental Spirits,” she says, letting the arm covering her eyes flop to the side and dangle off of the bed a bit “you said you were looking for a hero to ally with,”

“I was,”

She breathes in and then out, twitches her fingers in mid-air, and then, softly, quietly, admits

“I dinnae feel like much of a hero right now,”

She hears the rocking chair creak slightly as he gets up and she feels the bed dip slightly with weight as he sits down there instead. There’s still a faint chill in the air and she can feel it more concentrated around her legs. She keeps her eyes focused on the ceiling and doesn’t move.

“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” he says, gripping her knee gently in a reassurance. The gesture reminds her of her dad so much she almost cries.

He’s being earnest and he’s being sincere, so she bites the bullet and sits up, pulling her legs to her chest and then swinging them around over the edge of the bed so that she’s sitting next to him.

“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” Aegis repeats, now laying a hand on hers where it lies on the covers. He smiles a little “You could destroy the world and I’d still be standing by your side,”

_That_ startles a laugh out of her. She can’t help the smile on her face as she turns to actually face him.

“I get what you mean and it means a lot but honestly? Honestly that’s… that’s just _worrying,”_ she says, unable to keep further laughter out of her voice.

Aegis is definitely smirking a little now.

“I mean, I’d be there to kick your backside,” he says, as casually as though he’s describing the weather.

She laughs again, twisting the hand that his is resting on to hold on.

“_Much_ better,” she teases right back. “Though really, if it comes to that, I’d rather you kicked my backside _before_ I destroyed the world,”

“Well, _that_ shouldn’t be too hard,” he replies “All I’d really need would be a shiny sword and you’d be as distracted as a sneevil with a box,”

She laughs some more, the feeling of doing so starting to feel more like an old friend again. The emptiness in her chest, so ever present just a few moments ago, feels like an old memory. There’s no emptiness there now, just laughter and warmth.

“Come on, _Hero,_” Aegis says, and she can’t tell if he’s using name or title or both “there’s a whole lot of other worried people out there waiting for you, now that you’re done moping,”

“I _wasnae_ moping,” she protests, one last time, but doesn’t resist as he pulls her to her feet and over to unblock the door.


	2. Day 3 - AU: Ro & Artix

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Modern AU Chatfic feat. internet friends Ro and Artix  
I'm still inordinately proud of their usernames

** _Reibhleann_ ** _ added **Artixadin **_

** _Reibhleann_ ** _ has renamed this conversation to “IT’S TIME” _

**Artixadin**: why a group chat?????

**Artixadin**: this is literally just the two of us?????

**Artixadin**: are others going to join us

**Reibhleann**: probably not but this way I can make lame jokes renaming it

**Artixadin**: like what???

** _Reibhleann_ ** _ has renamed this conversation to “like this” _

**Artixadin**: you are right that is a lame joke

** _Reibhleann_ ** _ has renamed this conversation to “shut up Artix” _

**Artixadin**: Rude >:(

* * *

**Reibhleann**: this is bringing back an old thing but like

**Reibhleann**: you seriously don’t have tablet in your country???

**Reibhleann**: give me your address so I can mail you some

**Artixadin**: if I do that you have to give me _your_ address so I can mail you homemade wasabi :D

**Reibhleann**: you know what I am suddenly fine with you being deprived of the greatest foodstuff found on this planet

**Artixadin**: :(

**Reibhleann**: you threatened me with suffering so now _you_ must suffer

**Artixadin**: >:(

* * *

** _Artixadin _ ** _has renamed this conversation to “TWO CAN PLAY AT THIS GAME” _

**Reibhleann**: it’s been three days

**Reibhleann**: did you figure out that you could rename it on your own by accident

**Reibhleann**: did someone tell you

**Reibhleann**: ….did you google it

** _Artixadin_ ** _ has renamed this conversation to “Shut up Ro”_

** _Reibhleann_ ** _ has renamed this conversation to “YOU GOOGLED IT DIDN’T YOU”_

** _Artixadin_ ** _ has renamed this conversation to “PERHAPS” _

* * *

**Reibhleann**: do you ever realise that your search history probably looks really incriminating from an outside perspective

** Artixadin**: the last I checked it was three am in your time zone

** Artixadin: **go to SLEEP!!!!!

**Reibhleann**: but!!!!!!!!

**Artixadin**: _SLEEP!!!!!_

* * *

**Reibhleann**: Okay but seriously my search history probably looks so incriminating

**Artixadin**: just try not to get caught near the scenes of any crimes involving archaic bladed weapons and you will be fine o.ob

**Reibhleann**: you say that like it should be easy

**Reibhleann**: which ups the likelihood of it happening to me

**Artixadin**: I do not think that is how probability works?????

**Reibhleann**: well if I ever end up accused of being an axe murderer just know I blame you

**Artixadin:** would it not be more likely that _I_ ended up being accused of being an axe murderer

**Artixadin**: a sword or knife seems more likely for you

**Reibhleann**: okay that’s fair

**Reibhleann**: wait that gives me an idea

** _Reibhleann_ ** _ has renamed this conversation to “Artix Is An Axe Murderer”_

** _Artixadin_ ** _ has renamed this conversation to “why are you like this”_

* * *

**Reibhleann**: **_ARTIX_**

**Reibhleann**: ARTIX NO

**Reibhleann**: ARTIX DONT YOU DARE CHARGE IN THERE IT CAN ONLY END IN TEARS

**Reibhleann**: ARTIX WHY WOULD YOU _DO_ THAT

** Artixadin**: sorry I cannot hear you criticising my excellent battle strategy over the sound of us winning!!!!!!!

**Reibhleann**: WE LITERALLY JUST DIED

** Artixadin**: okay but before we died we were winning!!!!!!

**Reibhleann**: WE REALLY WERENAE

** Artixadin**: is your capslock stuck again

**Reibhlean**: MAYBE

**Reibhlean**: THAT’S BESIDES THE POINT

* * *

**Artixadin**: you

**Reibhleann**: …Artix?

**Reibhleann**: Artix did you fall asleep on your keyboard

**Reibhleann**: I’m going to assume the answer is yes since you arenae answering

* * *

**Artixadin**: my face hurts

**Reibhleann**: is it from falling asleep on your keyboard

**Artixadin**: possibly

* * *

**Artixadin**: so where _did_ your username come from anyways???

**Reibhleann**: it’s the 1st letter of my 1st name & my middle name

**Artixadin**: O.O

**Artixadin**: you are joking right???

**Reibhleann**: i’m dead serious

**Artixadin**: PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT

**Reibhleann**: SHUT UP I MADE IT UPO WHEN I QAS LIKE NINE

**Reibhleann**: YIUR USERNAME IS YOUR NAME MASHED TOGETHER W/ YORU FAVOURITE RPG CLASS

**Reibhleann**: YOU AHVE NO ROOM TI JUDGE

* * *

**Artixadin**: that was a lot of typos

_**Reibhleann** has renamed the conversation to “shut up Artix”_

**Artixadin**: again. Rude. >:(

* * *

**Reibhleann**: !!!!!!!!!!!

**Artixadin**: !!!!!!!!!!!

**Reibhleann**: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

**Artixadin**: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

**Reibhleann**: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

**Artixadin**: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

**Artixadin**: WHY ARE WE !!!!!!!!!!!ING

**Reibhleann**: [!!!!!!!!!!!.png]

**Artixadin**: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

* * *

**Reibhleann**: okay so Artix I need you to Help Me With A Thing

**Artixadin**: what Thing????

**Reibhleann**: okay so there’s this game that Ru & I are gonna be playing on the gaming channel

**Reibhleann**: bc people’ve been nagging us about it forever

**Reibhleann**: and basically it’s an online thing

**Reibhleann**: & you can have teams

**Artixadin**: I think I see where this is going

**Reibhleann**: will you be my team member so we can kick Ru’s backside at this game

**Reibhleann**: we are the Best Team and it will be awesome

**Artixadin**: I will not deny that we are The Best Team but

**Artixadin**: how is Ru getting her teammate???

**Reibhleann**: um.

**Reibhleann**: online random selection?

**Artixadin**: is that how you are supposed to be getting your teammate???

**Reibhleann**: I mean

**Reibhleann**: maybe

** _Artixadin_ ** _ has renamed this conversation to “Hero Bhaltair is a dirty rotten cheater”_

**Reibhleann**: so are you helping me or not

**Artixadin**: I _suppose_

**Reibhleann**: yaaaaay

* * *

**Artixadin**: [check it out.png]

**Reibhleann**: oh my gosh

**Reibhleann**: is that

**Reibhleann**: is that what I think it is

**Artixadin**: yup

**Reibhleann**: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

**Reibhleann**: I know we’ve been talking about this for months but IT FEELS SO MUCH MORE REAL NOW

**Artixadin**: HOW DO YOU THINK I FELT BUYING THE THING!!!!!!!!!!!

**Reibhleann**: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

**Artixadin**: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

* * *

_[The quality of the video and the way that the camera wobbles slightly and doesn’t quite strictly stay steady are all the signs really needed to tell that it was taken on a mobile phone._

_The location is an airport, in the arrivals area. There are several people from the most recent flight entering._

_The camera briefly pans to a young woman, with blue hair tied back in a pleat and a thick scarf hiding half of her face, bouncing up and down on her toes._

“You’re very excited,”_ says an off-camera voice, presumably the one filming._

“Mmhmm,” _the woman replies, eyes focused entirely ahead on the arrivals._

_Abruptly, she gasps and her pupils visibly dilate, the scarf shifting and the corners of her eyes crinkling upwards in a clear ear-to-ear grin._

_She takes off running._

_The camera shakes as it is frantically moved in order to follow the near inhuman speed she moves with, managing to reorient and refocus just in time to catch her running towards a brunet man who vaults over the arrivals barrier rather than go around to the gap for the exit._

_As soon as they are close enough, she jumps, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his torso. His own arms come up to hug her in kind, but the momentum throws them both off, resulting in them both crashing to the ground._

_The camera bobs slightly as the one filming approaches the two. They are wrapped around each other like octopuses, holding tightly as though the other will disappear if they let go. Their faces are buried in each other’s shoulders and it’s unclear if the sound they are making is crying or laughter or some combination of both.]_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Flatmates AU remains near and dear to my heart


	3. Day 6 - Tragedy: Ro & Cysero

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To quote the me of March 2017:
>
>> IT’S TRAGEDY DAY EVERYBODY  
LET’S HAVE SOME _ANGST_

The first time he meets Hero Bhaltair, she’s a lot younger than she used to be.

And, ironically, he almost doesn’t notice.

Sure, it should have been obvious. _Extremely_ obvious, in fact. After all, the last time he had seen her, before a whirlwind of battle and bloodshed and ultimately the end and subsequent rewriting of reality itself, she had been twenty three.

And the Hero Bhaltair he meets this time around, well.

She’s only _fourteen._

(Younger than he’d ever known her, before. She’d been sixteen at the beginning, then. He had hoped and hoped that she’d be sixteen, if not older, at the beginning this time too – because another _beginning_ is coming, has always been coming, another prophecy itching to be fulfilled, he can all but feel it)

The height difference alone between fourteen year old Ro and twenty three year old Ro should have made it easy to tell that she was younger, let alone all of the other things.

But none of that really _registers_ as a factor, the first time he meets her again.

Their second first meeting goes like this:

She’s trudging through Falconreach and she’s tired to the bone, has been pushing herself for _days._ The dragon egg is finally safe in the cave where it will hatch and the exhaustion of multiple days running around in pursuit of it, with very, very little sleep, is catching up with her. Her eyes are somewhat bloodshot and are framed by dark, deep bags. After everything she has done, all she wants to do _now_ is _sleep._

She stumbles and almost falls and only narrowly avoids a meeting between her face and the ground.

The only reason that she _does_ avoid that is that he sees the fall coming and crosses the distance flicker fast, bracing one hand against her shoulder and the other against her elbow, to help prevent the unwanted introduction.

She blinks blearily at the ground a few times, and then reaches up to clasp his arms with her own hands. Most of the resultant steadying is her own work, but he does help, and soon she’s standing straight again and she gives him a small smile, only indicated by a small upwards twitch around the edges of her eyes.

“Thanks,” she says.

(For half of half a second, his brain overlays a sixteen year old and a similar predicament. For half a second longer than that, the overlay is joined by a twenty three year old in a different predicament but with the same tired smile)

She lets go of his arms and he lets go of her as she takes a single step back. She holds out her hand.

“I’m Ro,” she says, a slight undertone of cheer showing through what is mostly _tired._

“Cysero,” he responds in kind, shaking her hand and biting back the _I know_ that almost slipped out.

Her eyes _light up._

* * *

They have a brief conversation that he has a strong feeling she wanted to be longer – mostly involving the various kinds of weapons he makes, her interest in them not waned in the slightest despite the absence of all the kinds he knew her for her passion about before – but she yawns so much and so hard that he can all but see her mouth stretching wide even through the mask, and he sends her on to the inn.

It isn’t until the next day, well into the afternoon, when she walks into his shop well-rested for the first time in days that it truly _hits_ him, like a rocket punch to the gut, just how _young_ she is.

Because she’s _there,_ wide-eyed and open and _innocent._ Rested now and energetic and _happy._

She had been so tired the day before that he hadn’t recognised this before. Because her exhaustion had been so like the exhaustion he’d seen in her before, in _all_ of them, before.

Except this time it had been _temporary._ She slept it off and it is _gone_, not clinging and cloying and feeling like it will be _forever _like it had before.

They talk and they talk and they talk and his heart feels lighter because he has his friend back now. There’s a glint in her eyes and a spring in her step that he thinks speaks of the same. She doesn’t know that she got him _back_, but she starts calling him a friend within ten minutes and he thinks it doesn’t matter if she consciously knows or not. They’ve found each other again and they have each other back and that’s what matters.

But _oh_ does it _hurt_ some days.

She’s so _young._

She’s young and wide-eyed and energetic and _happy_ and as happy as he is to have her back it _breaks his heart._

_Please_ he thinks, on too many days to count, watching her back as she leaves, not even knowing who or what he’s pleading to _please let this last. Please don’t let her have to suffer through losing this again._

Under the light of the sun, he grins and laughs and makes happy, happy memories with a Ro who is fourteen and just as young as she should be, who smiles easily even behind her mask and who almost skips when she walks most of the time.

Under the light of the moon, he dreams and he _remembers._ He remembers a Ro who was twenty three and so much older than she should have been, whose smiles were tight and wan and who’s every step was made in the shadow of the exhaustion that had settled deeply into her bones.

_Not again_ he thinks _please not again_

Hardships come, as they always do in life, but she stands up to them and stands tall and she always bounces back. It seems like maybe, _maybe_, things will be okay this time around.

(_A new start,_ they had called it, those of them present and aware to watch a new reality spin into motion. _A new, fresh start, for all of us, where everything will be better_. He hopes and hopes and hopes that they weren’t wrong back then)

And then, for the first time, he sees her hope break and his heart goes with it.

He has seen her stand tall and believe in the possibility of redemption for _everyone,_ the _hope_ that there’s something inside of everyone that could be found if you searched hard enough, her ever-present, seemingly never-ending hope that _nobody is ever too far gone. Nobody. Ever._

And he sees that belief _shatter._ The Final 13th comes and brings with it darkness and destruction and _war_ (it’s always war, always taking and destroying and _exhausting_) and he sees her stumble, literally and metaphorically, as she _loses hope_ in someone for the first time ever, as one of her core beliefs shatters into little pieces.

He sees her gather those little pieces up and hold them close and keep on fighting.

When all is said and done, he sees her forge those pieces back together, sees them start to shine again but this time a little dimmer.

He sees her light and hope start to fade and dim again and _despairs_ because he still doesn’t know how to fight its loss and help it reignite.

But he also sees her start to heal and feels his own hope rekindle at that. Because the one thing they never _had_ before was time to heal and perhaps that’s all that’s really needed. Perhaps _time_ was the missing trick they could never find.

They don’t really _get_ time though. Warlic is missing and he can see her worry, and then the atealans arrive, and _then-_

And then so many other things. So many other things.

_(“I’m tired,”_ she says, after Caitiff. It’s a tone he knows and for a moment he sees a twenty three year old standing in her place, overlaid like a ghost, hears the words in stereo.

He tracks her down afterwards, sits beside her and hugs her and lets her cry. She’s only eighteen and she’s already hitting the point where she was before, when she was older and still _too young_.

He holds her and lets her cry and remembers thinking that time will be the answer and hopes that when the fight against the Rose is done, they will _have_ that time. Hopes that she’ll get to _rest._

_“I’m tired,”_ she says, but he can see that it isn’t bone-deep. Not yet.

She cries and he holds her and he hopes that this time it will never _get_ bone-deep.

Maybe this time they’ll be okay.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I still have a lot of feelings about these two


	4. Day 7 - Feelgood: Ro & Tomix

“Have you been aboveground at _any_ point since you started working on this?”

Tomix glances up from his notes, blinking a few times at the warrior leaning in the doorway of the house he has temporarily claimed while he’s in Ravenloss. He can really only see half of her, one arm holding onto the doorframe and one leg out to make sure she doesn’t fall. Whatever the other half of her body is doing, he’s not sure, but with how she’s standing on her toes and wobbling slightly, he’s guessing the other leg _isn’t_ on the ground.

“…no,” he answers, when he processes the question.

Her eyebrows slant and the visible part of her nose wrinkles in a way that he’s learned by this point indicates disapproval.

“That’s not healthy,” she says.

She pivots on her toes, twisting her entire body and swinging her other leg around – proving that it definitely wasn’t on the ground before – so that she ends up fully in the room. She doesn’t stop her movement there, instead hooking her ankles against each other and dropping into a crosslegged sitting position, the momentum from her spin having carried her forwards enough that she’s more-or-less right in front of him now.

Which really makes the movement sound much more elegant and graceful than it was, as she almost fell over three times while doing it. (It’s rather clear that it’s not a manoeuvre she’s particularly practiced in doing out of armour, given two of those occasions looked almost like overbalancing or over anticipating her own size)

He turns the page in his notebook and continues writing, paying no attention to her comment.

“It’s really not healthy,” she says, elbows pressed into the crooks of her knees and hands resting in her lap as she leans forwards. “Going without sunlight for a long time is bad for you. It makes you get sick. Sometimes you need to let yourself take a break, Tomix,”

He lays his pen down, letting it roll across the page to rest in the dip in the middle of the book, and looks up to meet her eyes. They’re wide and open and sincere.

In silent reply, he lifts both hands towards his face. He doesn’t break eye contact for even a moment as he traces deep crescents underneath both his eyes with his index fingers.

Ro splutters and draws back. The higher angle combined with the flickering candlelight makes the dark bags under her eyes stand out even more starkly against the pale of her skin.

“My poor life choices _dinnae_ negate _yours_,” she says, sounding more mock offended than he thought it was possible to be.

“Is that so?” he replies, feeling the corner of his mouth twitch up into a smile despite himself. “Because I was under the impression you were talking about _health,_ and, last I was aware, sleep is rather important for that,”

“You dinnae get to criticise my sleep schedule when you _dinnae even have one,_” she says, without a trace of heat in her voice.

“I was under the impression that _you_ don’t either,”

That seems to be the point that she concedes defeat to, shutting her eyes and dipping her head slightly as she shakes it, shoulders shaking slightly with quiet laughter.

“Okay,” she says, the outer corners of her eyes crinkling upwards in indication of a smile. “Okay, that’s fair,”

For a couple of moments, they drift into companionable silence. There’s the soft sound of fabric shifting as Ro plucks at the end of her sleeve with a finger, soon joined by the gentle scratch of pen on paper as Tomix briefly returns to his work.

“I actually came down here to do something,” Ro says, breaking the silence. Tomix almost wants to ask if said something was nagging him about his health, but there’s something in the softness of his tone that makes teasing feel a bit out of place.

He sets his pen down again, a gentle tap against the paper. He looks up, ready to continue talking.

And then he stops.

For a moment, what he’s seeing doesn’t register.

And then his brain catches up with his eyes and he realises that there’s a pool of dark purple fabric around her neck where there usually isn’t and-

-and for the first time, he can see the entirety of his friend’s face.

She smiles, a small, thin, wavering thing that nonetheless shows her teeth.

“Surprise,” she says, voice taut and strained and only barely audible, in a way that makes his heart clench because he knows it has everything to do with _fear._

She’s told him the stories before, of course. The reason she started to wear the mask, the reasons she still wears it. She’s told him what’s behind it as well, though seeing it - the clearest sign he’s ever had that his friend isn’t human, a fact all too easy to forget - is something else entirely, because he _knows_ what seeing it means. Knows what she’s doing, knows what she’s _trusting_ him with.

There are many potential ways to respond to this but only one that sits at the forefront of his mind and heart and feels like it is _right._

He knows there’s no other response to give.

He smiles back in kind, similarly small but only out of nature, and leans forwards to clasp her hand.

“Thank you,” he says.

He doesn’t get the chance to finish fully, to elaborate on what that thank you is for (_thank you for trusting me,_ mostly, but not entirely) because that’s the point that she all but surges forward to turn the hand holding into a hug.

It’s also the point that she starts crying, though the tears turn into laughter halfway through.

“Thank _you_,” she says, voice muffled by the fact that her face is buried in his shoulder. A part of him wants to tell her there’s nothing to thank him for. He doesn’t though. Instead, he simply stays quiet, and tightens the hug the slightest amount.

Eventually, he feels her start to shift away, and they both let the hug end.

She smiles again, this time bright and wide, showing even more of her teeth but this time unafraid to do so. Her eyes are bright too, with the left over glimmers of tears and the happiness that comes in the absence of fear both. Though there remains the slightest shadow hiding in the back, her fear is dissipated.

And nothing proves this quite so much as the fact that she leans over to lightly shove him in the shoulder and, through the grin now on her face and the almost dry tear tracks and the quiet of an emotional moment passing, says

“You really do need to take a break, though,”

It startles a small laugh out of him in kind and he mirrors her gesture, lightly shoving _her_ shoulder.

“I will take a break,” he says “when _you_ take a _nap,”_

“Deal,” she says, quick and fast, smile quirking up into a little bit of a smirk. “I’m holding you to that _now._ C’mon, the sun is still up up there,”

And she stands, pulling him to his feet via the hand that neither of them have stopped holding yet.

(It’s the long way out of Ravenloss, of course, given that the portal doesn’t work in the day. It doesn’t feel particularly long, though, not filled with talking and laughter and camaraderie. Before any time at all feels like it has passed, she’s pulling him up out of the dark caverns into fresh air and sunlight.

There’s a quiet part of Falconreach, just enough out of the way to feel calm and peaceful, near the gentle sounds of running water and in the path of the sun. That’s where she pulls him to, talking all the while.

She leans her head against his shoulder when they sit down and doesn’t let go of his hand.

“Is there a reason you’re halfway to sleeping on me?” he asks, after she shifts position a couple more times.

She blinks up at him, looking almost half asleep already. Her mask is back up but he can tell that she’s smiling.

“Dinnae trust you not to count the walk here as a break and go back to working while I’m sleeping,” she says, without preamble.

He laughs and admits defeat because that’s fair enough.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> to quote the tags of the original post for this:
>
>> _#okay honestly I literally looked at the 'tragedy' and 'feelgood' prompts and internally went 'challenge accepted' #and then wrote angst for her fluffiest friendship #and fluff for her angstiest friendship_


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